Friends Without Benefits
by TBSigma06
Summary: It's 10 years after the break-up and Tommy and Kim have decided to become friends again. But when a different kind of relationship begins, a selfish act causes tragedies to occur and friendships are broken.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE- An Emotional Reunion

"Dr. Oliver?"

I looked up from my desk to see one of the students standing in my doorway. I couldn't get a damn break even when I was at lunch.

"Yes?"

"There's some lady in the principal's office that wants to see you."

"Who?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, some short lady."

Her voice quickly became a faint sound in the distance before she even finished her sentence. Kids were so aggravating. I looked at my pathetic excuse for a lunch and sighed leaning back in my chair. So this is what my life had come to; grading papers and taking orders from that bitch of principal Ms. Randall. I swear she came straight from hell. I reluctantly got out of my chair and wrapped up the rest of the sandwich that I knew I wasn't going to have time to finish. I never had enough time these days. As I walked down the hallway I wondered who could have been paying me a visit. I didn't owe anyone any money and I didn't really have any female friends that would come see me at work. I pondered this until i reached the office. As I turned the knob and pushed the door open my heart literally skipped a beat.

"Hi Tommy."

That voice. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

"Kimberly. What are you um...what are you doing here?"

She stood up and came closer to me. She was wearing tight blue jeans and a leather jacket with a pink shirt underneath. Typical.

"Can we, go somewhere and talk?"

I struggled to find my voice again.

"I uh, I've got a class, in a few minutes."

"Oh."

Her eyes moved down to her hands that were nervously moving around in front of her stomach.

"How about you meet me back here around three fifteen and we can talk then?" She smiled.

"Okay. I'll, see you later."

She walked past me out of the door and down the hall to the exit. I watched her the whole way. After ten years she still looked sexy as hell in anything she put on. I shook my head and started walking back to my classroom. What could she have possibly wanted to see me about that she couldn't have said over the phone or in an e-mail. It must have been important whatever it was. I had two more classes before the day was over and I barely made it through them. I was so anxious to hear what she had to say to me. I didn't blame my students for not really paying attention. Hell I wasn't paying attention to my self. When school was over I grabbed my things and quickly headed out the door. I walked slowly to my car, scanning the parking lot. Then I saw her. Standing about two cars down from mine. I didn't want to seem over eager so i put my briefcase and lab coat in my car and then casually made my way over to her.

"What's this about?" I asked as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

"I just...I just wanted to see you." I folded my arms across my chest.

"Are you doing okay?" She asked. I nodded my head.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. Teaching isn't so bad once you get used to it. What about you?"

"I'm good. I just moved to this area a few weeks ago. Thought I'd start fresh."

"So, you were looking for a fresh start and you found me?" I said with a half serious tone.

"Yeah, I know, I just...It's a small town and I heard some kids talking about a Dr. Oliver so I thought I'd see if it was really you."

"Well, here I am."

The attitude in my voice was coming through. It was an awkward moment for the both of us. The more I looked at her standing in front of me the more questions I had. I guess she picked up on that and broke the silence first.

"Look I don't blame you if you're still angry with me. I just needed to know you were alright."

"You needed to know, if I was alright? After ten years you decided to check on me? What kind of sense does that make Kim? You broke up with me, in a letter. Do you know how humiliating that was?"

"I know, I'm sorry but I couldn't-"

"Couldn't what? Pick up the damn phone and call me? Couldn't tell me the truth? Couldn't tell me you didn't love me anymore, that's what you couldn't do?"

She held her head down again for a second then lifted it up and looked at me.

"I'm so sorry for that. But I was young, and stupid. I wasn't old enough to know what I wanted then."

"But you were old enough to know you didn't want me anymore."

"It wasn't that I didn't want you anymore I just-"

I cut her sentence off quickly.

"Don't try to explain that to me, I really don't wanna hear it."

Our conversation was put on hold for a second while a couple of my students said goodbye to me. After they were gone she continued again.

"I know you might not want to believe it, but I never stopped loving you Tommy."

I laughed grimly and unfolded my arms, taking off my glasses and cleaning them with my tie.

"Could've fooled me."

We were both silent for a minute and I hated that so I spoke up.

"Look I don't wanna go through this. I'm not going to lie and say I don't care about you anymore because I do. So let's just, not talk about that. It's over, it happened. I've dated people since then and so have you so, just, forget about it alright? I don't wanna bring it up again." She nodded.

"So, can we start over?" I stared at her.

"Start over? Start over how?"

"I mean as friends."

"I don't know about that Kim."

"You said yourself you wanted every thing to be in the past. So let's start over. As friends. No strings attached."

I thought long and hard about it. I shouldn't be getting myself back into this situation. Kim was the past. I had a future now. I had a career. But I didn't have any one to share it with. And no matter how much i tried to convince myself that i didn't love her anymore, I knew i still did. Just seeing her after all this time brought back an overwhelming flood of emotion that I was barely able to control. I remembered everything about her. Her walk, her smile. The way she smelled, the way her eyes shinned in the sunlight. But it was going to take a lot of time if she wanted to have my trust again.

"Give me your number, I'll call you later and let you know."

I didn't let my demeanor betray any emotion as I spoke. She started to dig into the front pocket of her tight jeans to get her phone and I pulled mine from the clip on my belt listening as she called her number out.

"902...849...4385."

I stored the number into my phone and pressed send. A few seconds later her phone began to vibrate. She saved it and put the phone back in her pocket.

"Listen I need to get home, I got papers and stuff to grade. I'll call you alright?"

I said in a low tone. She nodded and I started to walk back to my car.

"It was really good seeing you, Tommy." I stopped and turned my head to the side but didn't face her.

"Good seeing you too Kim."

I spoke the words quietly. She got in her car and I sat in mine for a minute. That really took a toll on my emotions. I had a feeling that I was gonna need a few drinks to help me sleep that night.

The drive home was a real pain in the ass. There was a huge accident on the highway which caused my normal twenty minute drive to be almost an hour.

I tried not to think about her. But she was invading my thoughts every second.

The radio wasn't helping. I had my first preset to an oldies station and 'She used to be my Girl' started blaring through my speakers as soon as I turned the radio on. I kind of sat there for a minute staring out at the endless sea of traffic just listening to the song. But after about a minute I couldn't take it anymore so I just turned it off and tried to find one of my CDs to listen to.

But even while Coldplay blasted through my speakers, I still couldn't keep her out of my mind. My emotions went back and forth between happiness and frustration. I was really glad to see her, but then I remembered why I hadn't seen her in over ten years. _She _wanted to end our relationship, not me. But we were both young and stupid so I could forgive her for being a seventeen year old for the most part.

But you can only use the 'young and stupid' excuse for so long. Why hadn't she tried to reach me before now? Why wait ten years and just show up out of no where like nothing ever happened between us. What was she expecting? My mind burned with questions the whole way home.

And even when I tried to sit down and focus on grading papers I couldn't keep those thoughts out of my head.

After a couple of hours of this torture I decided to take a break. I got up from my seat on the couch and went into the kitchen for a glass of wine.

I stood in that spot for a minute, casually sipping from the glass, staring out into my living room. Did I really want her to be back in my life? I wasn't sure if my heart could handle it again. But after seeing her, I realized how much I really did still care about her. I was going to wait at least two or three days before I made my decision.

I called it quits at about ten thirty that night and headed down the hall to my bedroom. I changed into a pair of boxers and tried to go to sleep. But it didn't come to me as easily as I was hoping. I was not happy when I woke up and my clock read three sixteen a.m. By the time I got back to sleep again my alarm went off. I rolled over and slammed my hand down trying any way I could to make the piercing beep stop pounding through my brain. It was not going be a good day today.


	2. Chapter 2

*******Sorry it took me FOREVER to update this story. Got a lot goin on, life and stuff.** Anyway, here's chapter two. Enjoy*

* * *

**Friday 8:45 am, Reefside High**

I pushed my way through the sea of hormonal teenagers and headed towards my classroom. My first class started at nine fifteen, so that gave me a little bit of time to myself. Which was something I desperately needed in the morning. I laid my head down on the desk and closed my eyes. Not a minute after there was a knock on my door. I groaned.

"Come in." The door creaked open and I heard a pair of heels clicking towards me. My first thought was, 'Oh shit principal Randall.' But the voice that spoke to me didn't belong to her.

"Am I interrupting something?"

I lifted my head and slowly let my eyes travel up, taking in every single detail. The long legs, the tiny little waist…perfect breasts.

"Oh, uh…no. Just resting a bit." I nervously stood to my feet in front of her.

"Something you need to see me about?" I said, folding my arms across my chest like I always did when I was nervous.

"Don't look so scared Dr. Oliver, you're not in trouble." That meant a lot considering that this was my department head.

"I was just wondering since it's Friday and everything, if you would want to um, have a drink with me after work?" That caught me off guard. She was asking me out?

"I mean, not like a date or anything just as friends. I think we both need a little break." She smiled.

"I could definitely use one. Anywhere special you have in mind?" I asked. Before she could say anything one of my better students walked in.

"Dr. Oliver I need some help." Dr. Johnson and I looked at each other.

"We'll talk about it later." She said and walked out with a smile. I smiled to myself a little forgetting about my student for a second.

"Dr. O?"

"Yeah, yeah what'd you need?" And with that, my day started. Surprisingly, I didn't think about Kim at all. Nobody interrupted me at lunch either. Before I knew it the day was over. As I was packing my briefcase Dr. Johnson came in.

"Dr. Johnson." I said.

"Call me Haley, it's after school hours."

"Well, Haley, where we headed to?"

"I was thinking Poor Richard's. Sound good?"

"Okay with me. I've never been there." I said, walking towards the door.

"Really? You don't get out much do you?" We laughed, and I locked the door behind us.

"Not too much these days. It's hard to find somebody that can hold my interest."

"Well, I shouldn't have a problem with that." She said, obviously flirting a little. I always thought she was kinda hot. Never got up enough nerve to ask her out though. I'd never really interacted with Haley outside of work, but she was actually very pleasant to be around. Funny too.

It had been two days since Kim's visit and we hadn't spoken since. I wasn't doing anything important that day and it was only five 'oclock. So I figured giving her a call wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. My hands started to sweat as I found her number in my contacts list. I hadn't been this nervous since…I couldn't even remember. After staring at the phone for about five minutes, I made myself press send. No turning back now. My heart was going about a mile a minute, and I was secretly hoping she wouldn't answer. After about three rings I heard her voice on the other end.

"Hello?" I panicked for a second

"Hello? Tommy?" She said.

"Hey, Kim. How you doin'?"

"Great. I'm glad you called."

"Yeah um, I was wondering if you were getting' into anything later on tonight. Thought we could have a drink or somethin'."

"Uh, yeah sure, I'm not doing anything. You'd have to come and get me though, I don't really know this town too good yet."

"How about you just come over to my place?" I couldn't believe those words had actually escaped my lips.

"Um…" She started, not really knowing what to say. Hell, I wouldn't know what to say to that either.

"O-Or we could go somewhere, or whatever."

'_Great job Tommy.' _I thought to myself.

"How about you pick the place and surprise me?"

"Sounds good. What's your address?" She fumbled over the name of the street a little, but I knew what she was talking about. I wrote it down so I could put it in my GPS, and told her I'd there in thirty minutes. I felt like it was our first date all over again. Except this time I had a car.

I freshened up a little, made sure there weren't any stains on my black t-shirt, and headed out the door. This was going to be an interesting night.


End file.
